Meet the crypto billionaires building a world where money buys you a vote

Despite the fact that he views the media as one half of “The Cathedral” – his term for what he believes is the repressive ideological power made up of journalists and academics that secretly runs Western society – he agrees to meet me in Berkeley, California. We go on a short hike while Yarvin, who looks like an ageing punk rocker, speaks in circuitous, long-winded yarns that reference esoteric texts and periods of history to prove his points.

In our conversation, he outlines his “Patchwork” concept, in which traditional nation-states are replaced with a global network of sovereign mini-countries owned by shareholders and competing for citizens like a business competes for customers. He believes blockchain can be used to bring this world about and that the result would be “corporate monarchies” ruled over by “CEO-kings”. These corporate monarchs would be accountable to a hidden board of shareholders, who could potentially even control the military and police through something he called a “crypto dingus” that would allow them to essentially disable all guns.

Many of these tech billionaires see Trump, and his office, as outdated, something that will eventually be replaced with their superior technology. Throughout my time meeting tech billionaires, I increasingly got the sense that they saw themselves as the real holders of power.

The crypto lobby has now surpassed the fossil fuel industry to become the most powerful lobby in the US, having contributed $238m in the most recent election cycle, according to Fox Business analysis, external. Yarvin, Sun, Draper, and Liberland all give a glimpse into the future some of them envision for us.

From Justin Sun, to Liberland and Tim Draper, everyone told me how blockchain technology and cryptocurrency can free us – and our money – from government control. But who would we be handing the control to instead? Every example I’ve seen ends in wealth and power flowing to whoever controls the technology.